According to the survey, pregnant women are afraid of losing their jobs because of concerns about Covid’s safety

According to a survey, more than a third of pregnant women fear losing their jobs due to concerns about the safety of Covid in the workplace.

Research from the Maternity Foundation found that 36% worry about their jobs if they quit or ask their employers to work overtime to protect them from Covid.

The charity is calling on ministers to immediately revise its rules on health and safety for pregnant women in the workplace, which it says are “not fit for purpose”.

Ros Bragg, director of Maternity Action, said: “The situation for pregnant women is dire and will only get worse as the pandemic progresses.

“They are indeed right to worry – because the system that is supposed to protect them is not fit for purpose. There is a huge gap between what the law says and the reality of employers, putting women under enormous pressure to work in unsafe conditions.”

Bragg said officials and organizations tasked with enforcing health and safety in the workplace have “shown their complete incompetence to carry out their duties”. Women are being left with the “inevitable choice” of taking their employer to court for basic health and safety protection or “to continue working in an unsafe environment.” .

Current evidence suggests that pregnant women are no more likely to get Covid-19 than otherwise healthy adults, but they have a slightly increased risk of becoming seriously unwell if they do and are more likely risk of pregnancy complications such as premature birth or stillbirth.

In a survey of more than 400 pregnant women, more than two-thirds (69%) said they were quite or very worried about catching Covid because of their work. One in five respondents (20%) said they had quit or even quit because of worries about getting infected.

More than half (59%) raised concerns about their health and safety with their employers but, of these, almost one in five (17%) said their employer took no action to address their concerns.

A pregnant woman has told how she was forced to quit her job in the last stages of her pregnancy because of concerns about Covid’s safety in the workplace.

“I asked about the risk assessment and [was] The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said it was not necessary. “I just kept saying: ‘Can I work from home today?’ I come into the office every day and our office is still a busy and unsafe environment for Covid. There can be no social distance. We are not doing anything like wearing masks or taking other normal steps.

“I was really scared. I had a lot of conversations about what I needed from them. It very quickly became clear that none of those were on the table. They were momentarily unprepared to accept any changes to the way I worked. I used to feel appreciated, but suddenly every conversation is a difficult one.

“I was asked to attend a formal meeting and at that meeting it was made clear that my career with my employer was over. I really had to leave shortly, not knowing what I was going to do.

“What you can’t do is look at the newspaper and find another job, because you’re massively pregnant. It’s scary because you’re thinking about your mortgage, and your kids, and wondering if you’ll be able to pay off your car loan at the end of the month. I asked for too little and what I expected was very reasonable but at some point they decided that the investment in me was not worth it. “